Audrey Hawkins is a New York-based illustrator and graphic designer. She studied English at Johns Hopkins University, and Illustration at Parsons School of Design and the Dalvero Academy. Her clients include Girl Scouts of the USA, The Economist Group, and the Mystic Seaport Magazine. She likes drawing, reading, baking, and dancing. She dislikes writing about herself in the third person.

Whales are the largest mammals yet live their lives unseen, to their detriment and ours: if we could more easily see them, perhaps their survival might be more urgent to us.When we do catch a glimpse of one, it's impossible not to be moved.

In my piece, "sea change" refers to the change in the ocean over the past two hundred years. The whales have suffered these changes: first, from whaling and today from other survival challenges created by humans. "Sea change" also refers to Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, in which the ocean transforms the substance of the body into riches. As the sea changes eyes to pearls, bones to coral in the song, so we changed the substance of the whales' bodies into commodities.I hope that my piece makes visible that lost, uncommodifiable richness and inspires connection with the whales that still remain.

a,b. The Charles W. Morgan en route to New London, seen from Avery Point. c. A stamp commemorating the restoration of the Charles W. Morgan

a. The Charles W. Morgan before the mast-stepping b. Bending the sails at New London

a. The Charles W. Morgan under sail b. Sails full of wind

a. A stamp advocating for whale conservation b. Title: Bone Atlas Body: Inspired by a talk on whale skeletons at a Whale Naturalist Workshop c. Thumbnail drawing about our history with the whales, from whale hunting to conservation.

A preparatory drawing for "Sea Change," on view in Voyage of Transformation at Mystic Seaport.